Dakota Beacon

The Millennial Generation (Generation Y) must not be written off as liberal or otherwise disinterested. Their views are different from those of the Baby Boom Generation of the 1950s or the Generation X of the 1980s. With the Millennials there is still hope.

Political views of Millennials are in flux. They want to have their cake and eat it, too. They want lower taxes. But, they also favor smaller government unless it affects them negatively – like cutting support for student loans. Most Millennials have exorbitant student loan debt and do not want to see federal assistance cut.

Millennials are more likely than any other generation to switch parties. For that reason, Conservatives must do a better job of educating and reaching the Millennial Generation to show them the kind of policies that work. In a sense, their political views are fluid and they have an inherent distrust of the political machine as previous generations knew it.

Two factors prevail. Baby Boomers are the most self-focused; introverted; me, me, me generation there has ever been. They had it easy compared to their parents and grandparents. Millennials do not set any records in wanting their cake and eating it, too. The second and more important thing is Millennials have yet to experience a genuine Conservative Republican president. They have never had the chance to vote for one. They have not heard Conservatism articulated clearly by any political candidate on the Republican side. That's all the more reason Conservative Republicans have to do a better job at reaching out to the Millennial Generation.

This is true, but it is also true that the majority of Millennials trend left. That's all they know. In their adult life that is what they have been treated to through the media, their schools and in politics. They have grown up being told Republicans are embarrassing, horrible and backward. This is what Millennials believe. Above all, they want to be free to do what they want to do.

The key is that they have lost faith in the political system. They think the political system doesn't work and they are only half right. They've got student loan debt and they are coming of age where, for the first time in many generations, their expectations are not being met. There is no yellow brick road for them career-wise. It isn't there. They are coming of age in the era of Obamacare where people's jobs are being reduced to 30 hours a week. They are coming of age where the focal point of everybody's life is whatever it takes to get health care and everything after that is gravy.

They have lost faith in the political system when what they should really be losing faith in is the Democrat Party and liberalism because that is the political system they have grown up in. But, they don't see it that way. Millennials see it as the country not working. The country, in this case, equals the political system and it is not working for them. They don't associate the failure with the Democrat Party because the Democrat Party is all they know. They don't know an alternative and it is high time that changed. That is what a Republican campaign should provide the Millennial Generation – an alternative.

This is worrisome. It is frustrating. Millennials are not happy. They're irritated, they're unhappy, they feel let down. They admit that their future is not what they thought it would be. They have student loan debt but they don't have jobs, much less careers. But they're blaming it on the country. They think the country's best days are over. And there's a reason for this. They've never had a chance to vote for a Conservative president and there really has not been, in Republican electoral politics, anybody that articulated Conservatism consistently on a daily basis in a way that makes it a viable alternative to whatever Millennials are familiar with growing up.

In a word, Millennials have heard they should discount anything conservative or Republican. That is all they know and that is what they believe.

But -- there is more to the story.

Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at P. O. Box 337, Stanley, ND 58784 or (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).